Climate change and it’s impact on cropping pattern: A case study of Tawa canal command, Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract

Soil plays an important role in the ecosystem with regard to plant growth, soil biota functioning, reduction of greenhouse gases, modification of pollutants and maintenance of soil quality. The great importance of C stocks emphasizes the need to understand the role of soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics and quantitative changes as affected by natural conditions and site-specific management. Soil carbon inventories and turnover rates are influenced by climate, vegetation, parent material, topography and time. Studies attempting to understand the influence of a specific factor (e.g. temperature or moisture) on soil properties have found it useful to identify a group of soils for which the factor in question varies. Nevertheless, soils are the largest pool of terrestrial carbon containing 1550 Pg of soil organic carbon (SOC)1. This vast carbon pool is subjected to perturbation as a result of anthropogenic activities (land-use change) and natural reasons (climate change, soil erosion, etc.). The maintenance and enhancement of this terrestrial carbon can occur only through better land-management practices. The exchange of carbon between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere is an important yet poorly constrained portion of the global carbon cycle2. Though terrestrial carbon cycling has a strong influence on atmospheric CO2, quantitative estimates of production and loss at the watershed scale are rare. Watershed being a discernable landscape unit to study the integrated hydrological and biogeochemical processes, a study on quantitative estimation of gain and loss of carbon assumes importance in current climatic aberrations and future climate-change scenarios.